Critical decisions after 9/11 led to slow, steady decline in quality for Secret Service

Source: Washington Post

By Carol D. Leonnig December 27 at 10:47 PM

The Secret Service began struggling to carry out its most basic duties after Congress and the George W. Bush administration expanded the elite law enforcement agency’s mission in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

According to government documents and interviews with dozens of current and former officials, the recent string of security lapses at the White House resulted from a combination of tight budgets, bureaucratic battles and rapidly growing demands on the agency that have persisted through the Bush and Obama administrations in the 13 years since the attacks. At the same time, the Secret Service was hit by a wave of early retirements that eliminated a generation of experienced staff members and left the agency in a weakened state just as its duties were growing.

The agency assumed new responsibilities monitoring crowds at an increasing number of major sporting events and other large gatherings seen as potential targets for terrorists. A new anti-terrorism law gave the agency a leading role in tracking cyberthreats against U.S. financial systems. And Bush expanded the circle of people granted round-the-clock protection to include the president’s and vice president’s extended family and some White House aides — an expansion that has been largely maintained under President Obama.

Where the Secret Service had been a gem of the Treasury Department for more than a century, its post-9/11 transfer to the sprawling new Department of Homeland Security suddenly forced it to compete for money and attention with bigger and higher-profile agencies focused on immigration and airport security.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/critical-decisions-after-911-led-to-slow-steady-decline-in-quality-for-secret-service/2014/12/27/48fa3cd6-7f3a-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html

Pakistan: Gunmen kill man from targeted minority sect

Source: The Associated Press

Dec. 28, 2014 2:35 AM EST

SLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani police officer says unknown gunmen have shot dead a young man from a targeted religious minority community in eastern Pakistan.

Rifaqat Hussain says gunmen killed Luqman Shahzad on Sunday as he walked to an agriculture field near his village in the Gujranwala district of Punjab.

A spokesman for the Ahmedi community says Shahzad is the 11th member of the community killed in Pakistan this year. The spokesman, Saleemud Din, says Pakistani religious leaders and media continue to incite hatred against Ahmedis.

Ahmedis are followers of Ghulam Ahmed, an Indian religious leader who died in 1908. Although their beliefs overlap with Islam in many ways, they are considered heretics by many conservative Muslims. A 1974 Pakistani law officially declared Ahmedis to be non-Muslim.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d272ea00e8e845d2b30bb8bf9cc9b1b4/pakistan-gunmen-kill-man-targeted-minority-sect

US, NATO to mark end of mission to Afghanistan

Source: The Associated Press

Dec. 28, 2014 3:12 AM EST

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States and NATO will mark the formal end of the war in Afghanistan on Sunday with a ceremony at their military headquarters in Kabul as the insurgency they fought for 13 years remains as ferocious and deadly as at any time since the 2001 invasion that unseated the Taliban regime following the Sept. 11 attacks.

The symbolic ceremony will mark the end of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, which will transition to a supporting role with 13,500 soldiers, most of them American, starting Jan. 1.

President Ashraf Ghani, who took office in September, signed bilateral security agreements with Washington and NATO allowing the enduring military presence. The move led to an intensification of the insurgency as the Taliban have claimed it as an excuse to step up operations against his government.

ISAF was set up after the U.S.-led invasion to provide an umbrella for the coalition of around 50 nations that provided troops and took responsibility for security across the country.

It ends with 2,224 American soldiers killed, according to an AP tally, out of a total of some 3,500 foreign troop deaths.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e515eef3c6564698a670fb70ad9cbc8f/us-nato-mark-end-mission-afghanistan

Blitzkrieg Cop: "Once you start dressing and equipping people like an occupying army...

...they start acting like one."

California man suspected of vandalizing Islamic center

Source: The Associated Press

By SCOTT SMITH
Dec. 27, 2014 10:45 PM EST

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of vandalizing the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno on Christmas day, causing investigators at first to suspect a hate crime, police said Saturday.

But relatives of the 28-year-old suspect, Asif Mohammad Khan, came public to say that schizophrenia — and not hatred — led to the unfortunate incident. "It is a case of mental illness," said his sister, Samia Khan. "There's no question about that."

Asif Mohammad Khan has been booked into jail on charges including felony vandalism for more than $10,000 in damage done Thursday to the Islamic Cultural Center and a nearby medical office.

In the search for a suspect, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer had said that the broken windows and bleach poured on an American flag inside the Islamic center appeared to be a hate crime. On Saturday, Dyer said that investigators interviewed Khan, and their theory has changed. "It was obviously not as we thought," said Dyer, adding that police will let FBI agents decide whether hate-crime charges are warranted.

Khan confessed, telling officers he was upset with people at the Islamic center for talking down or bullying him, Dyer said.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/86df0c914b074d0a8af3e0661ba84e0b/california-man-suspected-vandalizing-islamic-center

Police Brutality, the US Media, and Systematic Racism in the United States

Boatswain2PA, mlb47driver, and PissedOffCoastie are obviously the same troll

Boatswain2PA: signed up Fri Dec 26, 2014, 07:46 PM, 3 posts
mlb47driver: signed up Sat Dec 27, 2014, 06:26 PM, 1 post
PissedOffCoastie: signed up Sat Dec 27, 2014, 09:05 PM, 6 posts

By an amazing coincidence, all ten of these accumulated posts are in response to this one thread of mine!

Could somebody please contact MIRT about this?

Sam: Coming out was right thing to do

Source: The Associated Press

By R.B. FALLSTROM
Dec. 27, 2014 5:10 PM EST

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Michael Sam says in a TV documentary airing Saturday night that coming out as gay was the right thing to do.

The Oprah Winfrey Network said in a release that the 90-minute program followed by a one-on-one with Winfrey and Sam was the player's first TV appearance since being cut by the Dallas Cowboys in mid-October. After one day of filming last spring, the Rams pulled the plug on the network's plans for a Sam documentary during training camp.

In a transcript released by the network, Sam called the NFL draft "the longest three days of my life." The St. Louis Rams drafted Sam late in the seventh round.

Sam said the reassuring hand of his boyfriend, Vito, on his shoulder during the wait to get picked affirmed the decision last February to reveal his sexual orientation. Sam, a defensive end who was the SEC co-defensive player of the year.

"In that moment, I was like 'I don't care what happens. I made the right choice to come out,'" Sam said.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e5923a89d4494df885443ce5f1cea330/sam-coming-out-was-right-thing-do